New Delhi: Two days after National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanansaid Pakistan had “reverted to us and asked a number of questions” onthe Mumbai terrorist attacks dossier, External Affairs minister PranabMukherjee reiterated that India had received no “officialcommunication” from Islamabad “about the progress of theinvestigations conducted by them” into the November 26-29 events.

Asked on Tuesday about Mr. Narayanan’s assertions to the contrary, theminister said, “That he has stated in his own way.” India had beeninformed by Pakistan about the receipt of the dossier, he said, but“thereafter” there had been no word. Earlier, on Saturday, Mr.Mukherjee had stressed the same point. “I would like to underline thatwe have so far not received any official Pakistani response to theIndian dossier or official information on the outcome of theirinvestigations. These are awaited”, a formal statement issued by himsaid.

Apart from disagreeing with each other on a point of fact, thegovernment’s top two officials dealing with Pakistan also appeared todiffer in their assessment of the seriousness with which the Pakistaniauthorities are investigating the matter,

“Certainly they appear to be taking things seriously and at least theyare proceeding in a manner that one would expect an investigativeagency to proceed, asking queries and not taking everything that isgiven at face value”, Mr. Narayanan told CNN-IBN on Saturday. “So asfar as we are concerned, we believe that Pakistan is making an attemptto arrive at the truth”, he said, adding, “Whether after all this,they would still accept the truth that will kind of hit them in theface, that I don’t know.”

In contrast, by repeatedly saying that Pakistan had not yet respondedwhen two interim sets of questions had been received and whenIslamabad itself had said it was going to hand over the results of itspreliminary investigation soon, Mr. Mukherjee has painted a picture ofnon-cooperation from the Pakistani side that is at variance with Mr.Narayanan’s more generous characterization. [The world press has noted the NSA’s assessment that Pakistan was taking the probe ‘seriously’].

On Tuesday, South Block officials scrambled to reconcile these twoviewpoints, with some suggesting the minister and NSA were playing a‘bad cop, good cop’ routine. Multiple assessments keep Pakistanguessing about what India’s next move would be and could encouragemore cooperation from the Pakistani authorities in the terroristinvestigation, they said. In this telling, Mr. Mukherjee wasreiterating New Delhi’s traditionally negative expectations while Mr.Narayanan’s comments were aimed at signaling to Islamabad that therecould be a positive pay-off to genuine cooperation.

But even so, officials had no explanation for why India would seek toconfuse its own public on the question of whether there has been anyinterim official response from Pakistan to the Mumbai dossier or not.

“The factual position is what the minister has said”, a senior foreignoffice official told The Hindu on condition of anonymity. “The MEAstatement on Saturday is categorical”. Asked about Mr. Narayanan’scomments, the official claimed he had “not seen” the interview.

One clue to resolving this factual dissonance might lie in Mr.Mukherjee’s use of the phrase ‘official communication’ when he saidPakistan was yet to respond to India. According to a report on Tuesdayin the Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, India was channeling itscommunication to Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency through theU.S. FBI, whose investigators are also probing the Mumbai case. IfPakistan was also routing its queries on the Indian dossier throughthe FBI, the external affairs minister would be correct in sayingIndia had received no official word from Pakistan, but only in astrictly literal sense. Or it could also mean the Indian intelligenceagencies – which report to the NSA – are handling the probe and anytechnical queries springing from it on their own steam withoutreference to the MEA.

However, an MEA official termed as “far-fetched’ all reports thatIndia was communicating with Pakistan through the FBI. “We communicatedirectly, and that is what we did when we handed over the dossier.Since then, we have heard nothing”.

Asked why Mr. Mukherjee was saying every day that India had not yetreceived Pakistan’s findings into the Mumbai probe when the Pakistaniside itself had said it was still finalizing it, South Block officialssaid the minister was barracked by TV cameras outside his office andthe only question they had was about the dossier. “Until Pakistanactually sends its reply, I’m afraid this media silly season willcontinue”.

According to Dawn, FIA investigators are “closing in” on a “Bangladeshconnection” to the Mumbai attacks and suspect the involvement of theHarkat-ul-Jihad-Islami Bangladesh (HUJI-B) as well as people in Dubaiand elements in India and are likely to “build the case for regionalanti-terror cooperation”. “The keenly awaited report is likely to saythat the Mumbai attack was the handiwork of an ‘international networkof Muslim fundamentalists’ present in South Asia and spreading all theway to Middle East”, the newspaper said. Asked for his assessment ofthe news report, a senior Indian official said it wouldn’t surprisehim if the FIA were to conclude the planning for Mumbai was by aninternational network which just happened to be “everywhere butPakistan”.

On Dawn’s allegation of a Bangladeshi link, I found this comment on < HREF="http://www.defence.pk/forums/pakistan-india-crisis/20972-bangladeshi-group-may-involved-mumbai-attacks.html" REL="nofollow">Pakistan Defence Forum<> quite funny:<>Re: Bangladeshi group may be involved in Mumbai attacks<>Now Pakistan is using RAW propaganda to pin the blame on Bangladesh!!!!<> “The investigators further suggest that the attack may be remotely linked to al-Qaeda’s international terror network. It should be recalled the HuJI-B, now being finger pointed for involvement in the attack, had been established in 1992 with material assistance and inspiration from Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front (IIF).”<> This is the same BS that RAW has propagating about BD for the last 8 years. The Indians will see through this BS since its their BS.